Do Good - Closing Shop

It is with mixed emotions that I formally announce the dissolution of The Do Good Charitable Foundation,Inc.

The whole Do Good concept was conceived as the “next step” to enable us to be involved with charitable endeavors – namely feeding children in Guatemala. Since its inception, we did succeed in providing tens of thousands of meals to children in Guatemala, primarily through the annual calendar fund raiser.
Unfortunately, what we lack is an ongoing stream of support to keep us afloat. While our upkeep costs for mailboxes, UPS accounts, credit card services, e-commerce, etc are minimal, we’re currently in a position of bouncing checks shortly. In addition is quite frankly that nobody on the Board of Directors, myself included, has the time to turn it around. As a result, we risk being non-compliant with the various requirements necessary to retain our 501c3 status, including a new tax law going into enforcement today.

We currently have $216.96 in our bank account. As soon as our last upkeep costs are paid we will donate the rest of the funds to Orphan Resources.

The question of a calendar is sure to come up. If anyone has an e-commerce system that they would be willing to “lend out” for a 2011 calendar, let me know.

I want to point out that there are aspects of this decision that are quite sad. We put a lot of work into creating Do Good, much of which is an ongoing legacy of my dear friend Lesa who designed the logo and passed away last year. Financially, while Do Good did provide many meals, I can honestly say the “project” cost me over ten thousand dollars to get rolling. Kelly spent endless hours building the website and getting the e-commerce system functioning. We went through all the hassles of setting up accounts, getting proper paperwork filed, etc. But at some point we had to say it just doesn’t make sense to continue…

Thanks to all of those who supported the cause and please keep wearing the shirts… We’ll find something creative to do with the URL…

Do Good Project - American Express Members Project.

We are officially competing for funds for "Our Kids" (meaning children in Guatemala who need our help!) in the American Express Members Project. The contest is for what projects will get a share of the 2.5 million from American Express. Can you imagine what our community could do for the children of Guatemala with a big boost from American Express???

I have to be honest and tell you that we were writing up our description right up until the deadline for entering projects. The site "timed-out" on us several times clearing everything out....when we finally did, it had cut off some of our text. So, I apologize....we were unable to load photos and clean up the description.

Announcing The Do Good Charitable Foundation, Inc.

Yes, its finally a done deal. We have established ourselves as a NON-PROFIT. We applied for our 501c3 in July and we are already working on several projects. So, let me give a quick intro to our readers. I think you will all be excited about how we intend to implement our projects as well as provide our readers with updates (including where the money is being spent).

I realize that Guatadopt is known more for providing assistance, education, news and a bit of advocacy. But DGCF is a charity non-profit designed PRIMARILY for assisting children of Guatemala (expenses such as food, shelter, medical care, personal attention, education, opportunities and whatever services each individual child may need). We will continue to support our favorite charities and assist them in spreading the word. But now, we will focus on some other projects that are dear to our heart such as assisting hogares that are in financial crisis (by directly paying some operating expenses!). Our concentration is child-centric and includes all aspects of child health (physical and mental).

Make checks payable to: The Do Good Charitable Foundation, Inc. or Guatadopt
You may specify a project and it will be earmarked for that project. Otherwise, we will apply it to our general fund. Project information will be provided shortly by Kevin, Marie and myself.

This has already been a journey as we have been working on this for several months. I hope you will take the time to read up on our plans, help if you can and more importantly SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Be a "Do Gooder" this Holiday Season

As we previously annouced, Kelly and I have formed a new company designed to sell some cool stuff, spread a positive message, and feed children in Guatemala - Do Good, LLC. The url is http://www.do-good-stuff.com.

Because we view our Guatadopt readers as part of our extended family and pride ourselves on being open and transparent, I have written up how this came to be, what it is all about, and where we stand today. So please read on for the full Do Good story.

And we thank you in advance for your support!

The DO GOOD Story…
Last March, Kelly and I were discussing myriad things related to adoptions and Guatadopt. We were in the midst of helping families caught in a scandal. It was clear that reforms to the adoption system were coming down the pipeline and we were not confident reform would come out well for children. We were strapped for time and costs to run Guatadopt were escalating.

The need to have someone truly “on staff” for Guatadopt, which still exists today, became clear if we were to maximize the service it offers to families. We discussed a few ways to potentially raise revenues, realizing all the while that the information and news had to remain free of charge.

In a sad reality, we hypothesized on what happens to Guatadopt should adoptions cease to exist. On this it was very clear that Guatadopt had to serve as a tool to keep families grown through adoption from Guatemala unified, involved, and informed. In addition, Guatadopt needed to move more towards a model to provide direct aid to those in Guatemala, particularly children, who need it.

Then an idea came to mind. Why not create a company to sell things where much of the proceeds go to provide direct aid? After exploring numerous concepts, we came up with the idea of Do Good. We’d create a brand to sell ethically produced items and the sale of each item would feed a child in Guatemala.

A logo concept was developed and numerous rounds of iteration and market research were undertaken to determine fonts, logo size, exact wording, etc. We decided on a preliminary product line and sought out vendors. We researched suppliers, got all the legal work done, and sought out e-commerce solutions.

The Do Good brand is intended as more than just a way to support kids. The name and logo are a message for us all to remember. Look at any religion and it will show you that grace is not earned by what we own; it comes from what we do. The brand is an everyday reminder to Do Good for yourself, your family, your community, the environment, as well as for a child in Guatemala.

We’ve run into many bumps along the way. We’ve had to switch some suppliers, e-commerce is tough, and boy was it a hassle to get the toddler tie-dyes set up! But alas, just in time for the holiday season, things are ready to roll.

Do Good, LLC is a for profit entity. We wish to be clear about that. But within that business model is a social mission. A social mission so strong that should Do Good prove to be a huge success, we will have to modify things because we’re donating above the legal IRS limits. (No, we’re not doing anything illegal. But because we’re an LLC it means that our personal incomes from our regular jobs count in reaching the legal charitable limits). In any case, through an agreement with Orphan Resources, we’ve set this up so that when we say an item feeds a child for a month, it does!

Do Good items are either Made in the USA or purchased through suppliers whose social responsibility policies have been researched and approved. As time goes we hope to build upon our procurement practices to be more socially proactive. Wouldn’t it be cool to have shirts being tie dyed in Guatemala some day?

Long story short, some of our prices may seem high. But the feeding program and dedication to ethically produced items add a lot of cost!

Right now, we are still working out some bugs in our e-commerce system. If for some reason you can’t get an order to go through, just contact us via the Do Good website and we’ll be in touch to place the order manually.

One of the biggest challenges has been trying to figure out inventory. Needless to say, we didn’t create this with huge sums of start-up capital. When you have 10 styles of shirts available in 5 sizes - that is 50 different items to try to predict how they will sell in order to build the correct inventory. For this reason, we are honestly using you, our readers, as guinea pigs of sorts, to see what sells and what doesn’t so that we can do a full-out launch and public relations campaign in 2008. If we run out of a size on a particular style, we apologize and will do much better as things continue.

If you have suggestions for other items you think would be cool to add to our portfolio, please let us know.

Here's a sample of the on-line store with the most beautiful models of them all (picture of myself excluded)...